Colleen Casey admits to killing 'best friend' in hit-and-run crash

Thursday

Sep 12, 2013 at 4:29 PMSep 13, 2013 at 1:53 PM

Colleen Adaire Casey and Jacquelyn "Jackie" White were best friends. Last spring, Casey killed White in a hit-and-run crash. Casey, 26, of 2583 Club Drive pleaded guilty Thursday to leaving the scene of an accident involving death.

By KIM KIMZEYkim.kimzey@shj.com

Colleen Adaire Casey and Jacquelyn “Jackie” White were best friends. They even shared a home.Early one morning last spring, Casey killed White in a hit-and-run crash.Casey, 26, of 2583 Club Drive pleaded guilty Thursday to leaving the scene of an accident involving death.Circuit Court Judge Frank R. Addy Jr. sentenced Casey to 15 years in prison, suspended to three years in prison and three on home detention, followed by three years of probation.Casey hit White, 23, of Spartanburg near Lake Forest and Torino drives at 4:20 a.m. April 22. White was taken to Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead later that morning.The prosecution has asserted Casey knew she hit White and later, with the help of her boyfriend, Kevin Terrant Miller, 31, of 2583 Club Drive, Spartanburg, tried to cover up the crime.Both women had been at a social gathering earlier. Solicitor Barry Barnette told Addy that White left first, followed by Casey, who was driving a 1997 Cadillac DeVille. White was struck a little more than a mile from where the party was held, and after hitting her, Casey drove a short distance to the home where she and Miller lived. The couple returned to the accident scene, apparently unaware that emergency dispatchers could hear their conversation.“Somebody called 911 on her phone,” Barnette said. “I don't know if they thought they disconnected or not, but you can hear the 911 operator talking, trying to ask what's going on.”Casey said she had hit someone and did not want to go to jail, while Miller told her that she had to stop drinking and driving, Barnette said.In a second 911 call, Miller acted as if he had discovered White lying in the road, Barnette said.Casey's attorney, Brendan Delaney, told Addy that his client initially thought she hit a deer. Delaney said Casey and Miller returned and found White lying in the road, after which Casey became hysterical and left.Miller was charged in July with accessory after the fact of a felony.Casey faced up to 25 years in prison. White's family asked the judge for a sentence that would send others a message and cause them to consider the possible consequences of their actions.White's cousin, Joey Edgins, addressed the court.“On the night that Jacquelyn had her life taken from her, Colleen made a decision that changed her life, as well as the lives of many,” he said.Edgins said it would take years to unravel through self-examination all the small decisions that caused his “family to be one member short where only a few remain.”White's mother, Janet, lost her battle with cancer in June 2010. Her father, Thomas “Tommy” White, died in 2008 — the same year that White graduated Spartanburg High School. “Colleen did not consider others when she started that car,” Edgins said.And he said it would take years, not months or a couple years, of self-examination for Casey to develop consideration toward others.“May your verdict be a reminder of how valuable human life really is,” Edgins said.White's brother, Thomas, also addressed the court. His sister would have celebrated her 24th birthday in August.“I think we all can agree here that to lose one's life at an age that young is just not right, nor is it fair,” he said.Thomas said there are no more chances to make memories and share good times with his sister. His immediate family now includes two people — him and a brother.“This whole thing could have been avoided if the right decisions were made, but they weren't,” he said.The defense said White was the victim of a tragic accident, not a crime.Delaney said Casey was 22 hours short of a bachelor's degree from the University of South Carolina Upstate at the time of the incident. She had no criminal record before entering her guilty plea. Her only brush with the law was two speeding tickets.Casey's friends and family members filled the pews to show their support.“This is certainly a tragedy of great consequence, your honor,” Delaney told the judge. “Jackie and Colleen were best friends. They lived together. They were living together at the time of this accident.”Delaney said the S.C. Highway Patrol's Multi-Disciplinary Accident Investigation Team concluded that White contributed to the accident.“She was illegally walking two to three feet in the roadway, in dark clothing, in a rural area where there was no streetlights,” Delaney said.He said the accident reconstruction report revealed that Casey was driving the speed limit and in the correct lane.Delaney also pointed to a coroner's report that White's blood alcohol level was more than three times the legal limit and referenced an addiction to heroin.Delaney said in one of those 911 calls one can hear “absolute blood curdling screams from Colleen when she realizes that this accident has occurred and her best friend is laying there dead on the side of the road.”Delaney said Casey left the scene after she went into shock.The defense felt the 143 days Casey has spent in jail was enough time, saying she would suffer along with White's family.“If (Casey) could take back the events of that tragic night she certainly would, but unfortunately she can't,” Delaney said.Casey's father, Wilson Casey, whose syndicated trivia column is published in the Herald-Journal, said he felt sympathy for White's family and called White a “great girl."“Colleen and her were best friends. Jackie was having some problems and Colleen and her boyfriend took Jackie in. They clothed her. They fed her, at times (when) other members of that family didn't want to take care of Jackie. But Colleen and Kevin loved her,” Wilson Casey said.Casey at times dabbed her eyes with a tissue she clutched in her shackled hands.“I'm just sorry that any of this happened. She was my best friend,” Casey said in court.But Thomas White painted another picture of Casey. He told the judge “drugs and alcohol were very common things in Colleen's life. She's a danger to this community. I'm really surprised it hadn't happened earlier.”In rendering his sentence, Addy said evidence indicated the women “loved each other like sisters.” Addy considered what his reaction would be in a similar situation.“I know that I wouldn't want a person to go to jail for a long period of time or even go to jail, to tell you the truth,” he said.He also considered evidence that some of White's actions may have contributed to her death, but told Casey people have to stop after an accident.“I've looked at the autopsy report. Had you stopped there's probably nothing you could have done to save Jackie, in all candor,” Addy said.He said it appeared there was nothing anyone could have done, even emergency responders.“But I still can't get around the fact that you didn't stop,” he said.